Duplicate/previous publication or submission
Manuscripts submitted to this journal must not be under simultaneous consideration by any other publisher and should not have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form. No part of a paper which has been published by Frontiers of Engineering Management may be reproduced or published elsewhere without the written permission of the publisher.

Ethical responsibilities of authors
This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.
Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which includes:
● The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
● The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work (please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”).
● A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g., “salami-publishing”).
● No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions.
● No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the authors own (“plagiarism”). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.
Important note: The journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.
● Consent to submit has been received from all co-authors and responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out before the work is submitted.
● Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
In addition:
● Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
● Requests to add or delete authors at revision stage or after publication is a serious matter, and may be considered only after receipt of written approval from all authors and detailed explanation about the role/deletion of the new/deleted author. The decision on accepting the change rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
● Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc.
If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been proven, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including but not limited to:
- If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
- If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either an erratum will be placed with the article, or, in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note.
- The author’s institution may be informed.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
Authors must disclose all relationships or interests that could influence or bias the work. Although an author may not feel there are conflicts, disclosure of relationships and interests affords a more transparent process, leading to an accurate and objective assessment of the work. Awareness of real or perceived conflicts of interests is a perspective to which the readers are entitled and is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation for consultancy work is inappropriate. Examples of potential conflicts of interests that are directly or indirectly related to the research may include but are not limited to the following:
● Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number)
● Honoraria for speaking at symposia
● Financial support for attending symposia
● Financial support for educational programs
● Employment or consultation
● Support from a project sponsor
● Position on advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships
● Multiple affiliations
● Financial relationships, for example, equity ownership or investment interest
● Intellectual property rights (e.g., patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights)
● Holdings of spouse and/or children that may have financial interest in the work
In addition, interests that go beyond financial interests and compensation (non-financial interests) that may be important to readers should be disclosed. These may include but are not limited to personal relationships or competing interests directly or indirectly tied to this research, or professional interests or personal beliefs that may influence your research.
The corresponding author collects the conflicts of interest disclosure forms from all authors. In author collaborations where formal agreements for representation allow it, it is sufficient for the corresponding author to sign the disclosure form on behalf of all authors. Examples of forms can be found here.
The corresponding author will include a summary statement in the text of the manuscript in a separate section before the reference list that reflects what is recorded in the potential conflicts of interest disclosure form(s).
Examples of disclosures:
Funding: This study was funded by X (grant number X).
Conflicts of Interest: Author A has received research grants from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company X and owns stock in Company Y. Author C is a member of committee Z.
If no conflicts exist, the authors should state:
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Copyright transfer
No article can be published unless accompanied by a signed Copyright Transfer Statement, which ensures a transfer of copyright from author to publisher. A copy of the Copyright Transfer Statement to be used will be provided with the letter of acceptance of the manuscript. Authors are asked to scan and return by email or fax the signed statement to the editorial office of Frontiers of Engineering Management at the Academic Publishing Division of the Higher Education Press.